The Endless Note

The current edition of MOJO as above has as it’s main feature an article on The Ramones and includes a Free CD of “The Roots Of The Ramones” all tied in to mark the 10th anniversaryof the death of Joey Ramone.

Born Jeffry Ross Hyman (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001) Joey grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York where he and his future bandmates attended the local High School.

During his youth, he was by general accounts something of an outcast and had a dysfunctional family life, which inspired the song “We’re A Happy Family.” His parents divorced in the early 1960s.

He took up drums at 13, and played throughout his teen years and in 1974 he co-founded the Ramones with friends John Cummings and Douglas Colvin, upon which point all three adopted stage names using “Ramone” as their stage surname.

Cummings became Johnny Ramone, and Colvin became Dee Dee Ramone, with Hyman adopting the name Joey Ramone, despite the fact that none of them were related.

The name Ramone stems from the fact that Paul McCartney used to check into hotels under the pseudonym “Paul Ramon” while touring.

Joeyobviously initially served as the group’s drummer. Dee Dee Ramone was the original vocalist. However, Dee Dee proved to be unsuited for the lead vocal position as he shredded his vocal cords after the first few songs recorded, so manager Tommy Erdelyi (who adopted the name Tommy Ramone) suggested Joey switch to vocals and he would step in and take over on drums.

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From mid-1970 to early 1974, The Who, or in particular Pete Townshend, undertook an amazing and peculiar journey in which they struggled to follow-up “Tommy” with a yet bigger and better “rock opera”.

One of those projects, “Lifehouse“, was never at that time completed, though many of its songs formed the bulk of the classic 1971 album “Who’s Next”.

The other,” Quadrophenia”, was as down-to-earth as the multimedia Lifehouse was futuristic; issued as a double album in 1973, it eventually became esteemed as one of the Who’s finest achievements, despite initial unfavourable comparisons to Tommy and remains my favourite album of all time!

Along the way, the group’s visionary songwriter, Pete Townshend, battled conflicts within the band and their management, as well as struggling against the limits of the era’s technology as a pioneering synthesizer user and a conceptualist trying to combine rock with film and theatre. The results included some of rock’s most ambitious failures, and some of its most spectacular triumphs.

In “Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Who From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia”, noted rock writer and historian Richie Unterberger documents this intriguing period in detail, drawing on many new interviews; obscure rare archive sources and recordings; and a vast knowledge of the music of the times.

The result is a comprehensive, articulate history that sheds new light on the band’s innovations and Pete Townshend’s massive ambitions, some of which still seem ahead of their time in the early 21st century.

Having now finished the book the above synopsis by Waterstones pretty well sums it up.

Whilst reading the above book I have also been flicking through a new “Who Special” from the makers of Uncut

People try to put them down – but that’s because they’re still around!

The latest Ultimate Music Guide from the Uncut team turns the spotlight on one of the most exciting, bright, controversial – and loud! – rock bands that Britain has ever produced. Over 148 pages, we salute the majesty and audacity of The Who.

As usual, we’ve raided the NME and Melody Maker archives to reprint, in full, a wealth of extraordinary interviews, unseen for years. There are riotous nights out with Keith Moon, provocative soul–searching sessions from Pete Townshend, blow–by–blow accounts of all those concept albums and rock operas, and even an incendiary piece in which Roger Daltrey appears to break up the band.

Meanwhile, Uncut’s current roster of fine writers have provided authoritative new reviews of every Who album, to go alongside many rare and beautiful photographs.

Pete Townshend himself pens a candid new introduction to the whole extravaganza. “What would I have done differently?” he ponders… “I would never have joined a band!”

A treasure trove of wisdom, outrage and remarkable images, from the makers of Uncut – that’s The Ultimate Music Guide: The Who.

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The January issue of my favourite monthly music magazine MOJO has as its centrepiece an article on Neil Young’s classic album “Harvest” plus the Top 50 Neil Young songs as chosen by a variety of musicians plus interviews with the man himself and Nils Lofgrin.

Someone and someone
were down by the pond
Looking for something
to plant in the lawn.
Out in the fields they
were turning the soil
I’m sitting here hoping
this water will boil
When I look through the windows
and out on the road
They’re bringing me presents
and saying hello.

Singing words, words
between the lines of age.
Words, words
between the lines of age.

If I was a junkman
selling you cars,
Washing your windows
and shining your stars,
Thinking your mind
was my own in a dream
What would you wonder
and how would it seem?
Living in castles
a bit at a time
The King started laughing
and talking in rhyme.

Singing words, words
between the lines of age.
Words, words
between the lines of age.